Coming straight from his latest box office miracle, the
remake of Pink Panther (2006), director Shawn Levy was called
upon to take over directing duties from Stephen Sommers for Night At
The Museum. Sommers was apparently suffering from a little time
pressure with the scripts for When Worlds Collide (2008) and
The Mummy 3 (2008), so handing over the project was probably the
best solution. Only Sommer's friend and co-founder of The Sommers
Company, Bob Ducsay, stayed on-board as the film's producer along with
Chris Columbus. In the quirky fantasy/comedy Ben Stiller plays Larry
Daley, a bumbling yet caring family father in divorce, who dreams of
bigger things even though he is the prime example of a looser. Larry has
no job and his poor resume isn't exactly a door opener either, so he has
to accept a vacant post as a night guard at the museum of natural
history and replaces old night guards Cecil, Gus and Reginald
(brilliant: Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs) who want to go
on pension. Little does Larry know what happens at the museum at night.
All of the exhibits develop a life of their own as soon as the sun is
setting due to a mysterious ancient tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah,
bringing chaos to what was supposed to be a boring night shift for
Larry. As if that would not be
enough for $ 11.50 an hour, the tablet suddenly disappears...

The score:

It was probably the film's strong
connection to Stephen Sommers through its producer Bob Ducsay which
opened the museum's doors for Alan Silvestri when the first choice John
Ottman was suddenly off the project. Sommers and Ducsay only spoke with
words of highest praise about Silvestri's work for Van Helsing
(2004) or The Mummy Returns (2001) in interviews while Sommers
was saying in 2004 that he would certainly hire the composer for
whatever projects that might be down the alley. Contracting Silvestri on
Night At The Museum to musically bring the exhibits to life was
probably the best thing that happened to the film. There was certainly a
large need for his strong melodic signature themes, sense for magical
mystery and playful quirkiness. Silvestri did just that and composed
a total of about 60 minutes of orchestral music for the film that is rich on melody
and often busy in its stirring writing with a lot of small ideas, all
tied together by his knack for handling the orchestra and choir like no
other recent composer. Admittedly, the end result is a bit all over the
place with maybe a bit too many too small, almost stalling-esque
mickey-mousing ideas that will make it hard to
keep things in focus while listening to the quite lengthy album.
Although it is a bit too busy at times it can still maintain a constant
entertainment level and often saves the film in various scenes,
functioning as a very well-crafted enhancement of the overall cinematic
experience. Silvestri was given much more spotlight
in the picture itself than usual, starting with a very prominent
integration of the music into the overall sound mix.

If you were
wondering where great title sequences have been these days, you will be
surprised by Night At The Museum which has a very lengthy title
sequence starting with shots of New York City's skyline as Silvestri is
starting his score with gentle glockenspiel, celesta and flute. As the
title "Night At The Museum" comes up over a panorama shot of the museum,
Silvestri builds his mystifyingly magical theme on the strings, formerly
announced by horns, to lure the audience into the building and into his
music. The interior of the museum is now shown with a slow montage of
the individual exhibits and Silvestri is perfectly referencing the most
important ones
with individual musical signatures. A scream of horns comes up when we
see the big Anubis statues and the sarcophagus of Pharao Akmenrah, a brief hint of Silvestri's
heroic Teddy Roosevelt theme is played by horns as the wax figure of the
former president appears on screen, a brief gentle woodwinds-moment
highlights the elegant Indian squaw Sakagawea while tight male choir plus African
percussion accompany the Easter islands idol. A shot of the T-Rex
skeleton receives a dominant Silvestri-male choir
outburst in best Van Helsing (2004) fashion heard at the end of
the track and the male choir remains the most prominent musical
signature for the T-Rex. The magical main theme only comes in
occasionally and Silvestri always makes effective use of it, for example
in the scenes when the "Sunrise" scene when morning light ends the magic
in the museum. While Silvestri does musical references to the
origins of the exhibitions such as these throughout the score, he rarely
does it 'into-your-face' and they come along as rather subtle, leaving
you enough stuff to discover after you have seen the flick and play the
disc again. A real treat for Silvestri fans will be his
theme for Larry Daley. The lowbrow family father received a fitting,
quirky motif introduced in "One Of Those Days" consisting of pizzicato
strings against a very slight rhythmic backdrop of light percussion and
synths with an e-piano coming in later. The pop-modernism gently
resembles Silvestri's old days of Romancing The Stone (1984)
while the pizzicato strings add something freshly melodic to it. No
family movie would be perfect without an emotional, musical theme for
the family as introduced on piano and strings in "An Ordinary Guy".
Since Larry lives in divorce and struggles to get a job in order to see
his son, the family theme is warm and sad at the same time, always
expressing his desire to be a good father despite being a loser.

"Tour Of The Museum" is a nice track.
Very subtle but well orchestrated and contains some interesting
references such as exotic percussion for the animals of africa and an
odd wind instrument to highlight the Easter islands idol for a brief
moment. It's one of many effective moments that will only jump at you as
being cool after you have experienced them along with the movie. From
that point on, the cue names of the album can be a bit misleading
because they don't match what happens in the film (probably to avoid
possible spoilers, so sorry in advance if I am ruining anything here).
"Civil War Soldiers" is actually the entire T-rex skeleton sequence
starting with some really neatly done suspense music for low woodwinds
and low strings put against the magical sounds of glockenspiel and
sparkling to create an uneasy contrast as Larry realizes that the
skeleton is gone. The dark Van Helsing choir then announces the
discovery of the quite lively bone-rex while some pulse-pounding action
music with heavy percussions and fast-paced ostinatos for strings and
trumpets is following Larry's panicky escape attempt. But 'Rexy'
suddenly turns out to be frisky instead of hungry, so Silvestri throws
in the Larry Daley theme and clearly saves the humour of the scene with
that decision. The last bit of the track is dedicated to a broad
statement of the wondrous main theme followed by more frenzy mayhem for
orchestra. Frenzy mayhem is also a good description for "Out Of Africa"
which is actually underscoring an attack of Attila and the Huns with
some insanely overpowering, wild synth percussion and atonal horn
screams. A lovely flute moment is heard at the end to introduce Larry to
the beautiful squaw Sakagawea. Now come the civil war soldier puppets
and fight a little brother war along with a Silvestri-snare-drum-feast
in "Meet Dexter". Stalling-esque mickey-mousing moments for strings and,
well, everything else are accompanying scared Larry's run through the
museum hallways with a sudden set of percussion strikes over high
tremolo strings notifying us that he has just entered the lion's den.
One of my favourite moments comes at the end of "Mayan Warriors" when
Larry is doing acrobatics to get back some papers. It's an elegantly
comical moment for flutes, low woodwinds and a frenetic violin, fiddling
around until an odd coda.

After some glockenspiel magic plus
impressionistical flute stuff in "Where's Rexy" for the nasty
little ape Dexter and some magically suspenseful moments in "West From
Africa" comes a short but nicely tongue-in-cheek statement of big sky
western music ala Bruce Broughton in "The Iron Horse" for the small cowboy
figure Jedadiah. Silvestri continues in "Saved By Teddy" with some
vibrant battle music as small Octavius' legions unleash hell before a
cool and dynamic brass fanfare moment of Teddy Roosevelt's noble,
adventurous theme rouses as the former president is saving Larry. Teddy
explains to Larry the curse of "The Tablet Of Akmenrah" with Silvestri
lurking in his theme for the pharaoh in there. A romance between Teddy
and the Indian squaw Sakagawea starts developing with a soft and subtle
piano motif in "Tracking, Dear Boy" which is later continued in "Teddy
Likes Sakagawea" but never expands into a full romantic theme. A noble
horn statement of Teddy's theme comes in "Some Men Are Born Great" when
he lectures Larry with Shakespeare's famous quote. A montage follows
when Larry has to "Study Up On History" which contains snippets of
Silvestri's main theme along with some modern, Thomas Newman-like
electronic percussion and this is definitely a cool moment even though
it was clearly in the temp-track. Silvestri is mickey-mousing through
"Tearing Limbs", "Caveman On Fire" and "Outrun The Sun". From here the
album starts dragging a bit, so the quiet colourful track "Show You What
I Do" can easily get lost even though there is some nice percussion and
suspense stuff for quiet choir going on while "Tablet Is Gone" is
another track that drags a bit too much. Adventure returns with
"Theodore Roosevelt At Your Service" which starts with a cool action
build ala Polar Express (2004). "This Is Your Moment" contains a
reprise of the action music from "Civil War Soldiers" with a bit more
punch to it and a set of demonic fanfares for the introduction of
Pharaoh Akmenrah as he is raising from his sarcophagus. Nothing new for
Silvestri since he scored The Mummy Returns (2001). After a noble
outburst of jubilation fanfares in "Rally The Troops", Silvestri brings
in some of the synths from "I Need Terry Sheridan" of his score for
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) for a moment of
coolness in "Tire Take Down". Finally, the adventurous aspect of the
film really starts cooking while the music is going full steam ahead
with "Cecil's Escape" and then "Stage Coach" which is easily the very
highlight of the CD. Rousing fanfare sets are pounding along with steady
percussion and cymbal hits reflecting on the composer's rhythmic
qualities. If you had hoped for more rousing moments as these you
certainly were waiting for the wrong score. The remaining cues bring
most of the themes and motifs to more or less satisfying endings, most
notably the Roosevelt theme in "A Great Man" while "Heroes Return" is
the larger-than-life cymbal fest of the year for some really tiny
heroes.

Review by Andreas Creutzburg

RATING:

Score as heard in the film:
85%

Score as heard on CD:79%

TOTAL:
82%

The
presentation:

In terms of presentation Varese has notably improved in
recent times. The album clocks in at a wealth of 53 minutes and contains
nearly everything Silvestri composed for the movie apart from maybe two
or three tracks that aren't of much crucial importance. Varese has
recently taken over the practice of cross-fading cues. That practice
was really annoying on their album for X-Men: The Last Stand
(2006) but works wonders here for Night At The Museum because the cross
fades are often improving the flow of the music, making the album a much
more pleasant listening experience. In fact, you will barely notice
these fades because they are happening right on spot to bridge gaps
between the often short tracks. A plus also goes to the booklet where a
lot of colour pictures where used along with a full credit of the
orchestra players. The sound quality is very good. While it may not be
the most satisfying listening experience for some people, Varese still
deserves credit for releasing most of the music instead of leaving out
one half and cutting the other half into suites without any narrative
logic as Disney Records did it with Silvestri's The Wild (2006).
You will be guaranteed to find your most favourite moment of score from
Night At The Museum on this CD!

Presentation by
the Label:70%

Summary:

If you are excepting another big stroke of genius ala The Polar
Express (2004) or The Mummy Returns (2001), then you are in
for a big disappointment because this one is clearly more on Mouse
Hunt (1998) territory. But it can still be quite an entertaining experience to hear what Silvestri
can do musically even within the briefest tracks. There is almost too
much going on in each and every cue that this score definitely requires
multiple listens to fully get into it. It's not so much a problem that
most cues are short (actually, it will come down to each of you if you
have a problem with a score just because of a short average track
length). In fact, most of them merge very well into each other. After a
strong opening with the excellently lyrical main title theme heard in
"Night At The Museum" or some pounding action in "Civil War Soldiers"
and "Saved By Teddy" the album will come to a point where it feels a bit
too unconnected, especially in the middle section where only the Thomas
Newman-esque main theme variation of "Study Up On History" will sustain
interest. Although the middle section is missing a bit more bite the
last third will reward you with some more marvellous moments of grandeur
("Rally The Troops"), action ("Stage Coach"), epic size ("Heroes
Return") and drama ("A Great Man") again all happening within rather
short musical titbits. I guess we don't need to talk again about
Silvestri's knack for tight orchestral writing and development of themes
because these are really commonly known standards of his work by now. If
you are one of those who enjoy his music just for these standards you
will have one of the best film music experiences of 2006 while others
will probably need a bit more patience to discover the good that lies
within this score.